


Shut Your Mouth, Baby

by tiffanyb98



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, Established Relationship, F/M, Love/Hate, Minor Character Death, Raising your sibling, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 20:59:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15421488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiffanyb98/pseuds/tiffanyb98
Summary: It's the end of the world and the dead coming to life are far from the only problem Carl and Ryleigh are dealing with.





	Shut Your Mouth, Baby

"Sshh." Carl hushed his girlfriend of a year and a half, Ryleigh.

"Sorry." She giggled.

They were attempting to sneak out of the house to have some alone time. Alone time was a rarity in their case, where they were still sharing a house in Alexandria with Rick, Michonne and her baby brother that she was raising as her own, Grayson.

They managed to get out of the house and somehow make it past the night guard on the wall without being noticed. The two of them went into the woods holding hands.

They walked for a bit until they were far away enough to where they couldn't be seen or heard.

Carl got a blanket out of his bag and laid it on the ground.

Ryleigh heard the unmistakable sound of a walker growling as it approached them and took out her knife. She approached it and stabbed it in the temple.

"I can't wait until we get our own place so we don't have to keep sneaking out here just to have sex," Ryleigh said.

"I know, baby, we'll get a place soon," Carl assured her as he sat down on the blanket. "Try not to worry about it right now. C'mere." He motioned for her with his finger.

She smiled and got down as well, kissing him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryleigh woke up first thing in the morning nauseated. She slapped a hand over her mouth and hurried into the bathroom down the hall. She barely made it before she started spilling her guts over the porcelain bowl.

Carl hurried into the bathroom and held her hair back with one hand, rubbing her back comfortingly with his free hand.

Once she was finished, she leaned back against Carl. "Oh man, I hate throwing up." She complained.

"Are you sick?" He felt her forehead. "You're not warm." He observed.

Ryleigh's mind raced as she tried to figure out when her last period was. She could very well be pregnant but she didn't want to freak Carl out by saying anything about it yet. She would go to the infirmary and see if Denise had any pregnancy tests available.

"I'm okay, Carl." She stood up, having to hold onto the sink because she was dizzy.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked worriedly. "You don't seem like it."

"I'm fine!" She snapped at him.

He put his hands up. "I'm sorry I asked."

Ryleigh immediately realized what she had done. "I didn't mean to snap at you baby, I'm sorry."

"I'm just concerned." He defended himself.

"I know, I'm so sorry." She said, wrapping her arms around him.

He wrapped his arms around her. He had never seen her go from emotion to emotion so quickly so he didn't quite know what to think.

"I love you, Carl." She pulled back to look at him.

"I love you, Ry." 

"Let's go back to bed for a bit. It's still dark out." She took his hand and led him into their bedroom.

A couple hours later, Carl was watching Judith and Grayson. Ryleigh made her excuses to leave the house and headed to the infirmary. Luckily there was no one there except for Denise.

"Denise, can I ask you something and you not tell anyone about it?" She asked.

"Of course, Ryleigh." She agreed.

"I need a, um..." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "A pregnancy test."

"Oh, honey," Denise said sympathetically.

"Please don't tell anyone!" Ryleigh said quickly.

"Your secret is safe with me, I promise," Denise assured her and gave her a small box. "Just follow the instructions on the back." She told her the eighteen-year-old.

"Okay. Can I take it here? I don't want anyone to find the box in the trash at home."

"Go ahead, hun. You know where the restroom is." 

Ryleigh walked into the restroom and shut the door behind herself. She read the instructions and took the test. The directions said it should take about five minutes for the results to appear, but it didn't even take a full minute for the pink plus to appear in the test window. Pregnant.

The test dropped out of Ryleigh's hands in shock, clattering to the floor.

"Ryleigh?" Denise asked on the other side of the door. "Are you alright?"

Ryleigh collected her test and opened the door, tears pricking her eyes.

"Oh, honey," Denise said, hugging her.

Tears spilled out of Ryleigh's eyes, rolling down her cheeks. "I can't believe it."

"It's going to be okay, Ryleigh," Denise said softly.

"I have to go." Ryleigh pulled away from her. She shoved the test in her pocket and left the infirmary in a hurry.

Ryleigh went straight for the gate out of Alexandria and out into the woods. She walked for sometime before climbing up a tree, sitting in it and pulling her knees up to her chest, full on sobbing into them.

When she got sort of calmed down, she heard snarling beneath her and noticed there was a walker pathetically trying to reach for her. She simply scoffed.

Ryleigh didn't know how long she stayed in the tree but eventually, she heard the undeniable sound of someone stabbing a walker. She looked down to see Carl beginning to climb the tree. She moved over to make room for him and he sat down beside her.

"I've been looking for you for three hours!" He said. "Where the hell have you been?" 

"I've been here." She motioned to the tree.

"What's wrong?" He asked softly.

She laughed humorlessly. "Everything."

"Talk to me, Ryleigh. Please don't shut me out." Carl begged.

She sighed. "I'm pregnant." She looked over at him and tried to gauge his reaction.

His eye nearly bulged out of its socket. "Did I hear that right?"

"I'm pregnant." She repeated.

He opened and closed his mouth several times, struggling to find words.

"And I'm scared." Ryleigh continued her voice breaking. "I'm scared that you're going to leave me, I'm scared that I'm going to have to attempt to raise a baby alone, I'm scared that I'm going to die-"

Carl pulled her into his arms and she cried into his shoulder. He comforted her, stroking her hair.

Once she was calmed down, he spoke. "I'm not going anywhere, Ryleigh. I could never leave you. You're my entire world and our baby will be too."

"How are we supposed to raise a baby? It's the end of the fucking world-literally." 

"Judith was born in worse conditions. Ryleigh, we have an actual house, ammo, hell we even have medicine and a nurse!"

"Do you really want to keep this baby? There's a way out y'know."

"What do y-" His eyes drifted to the knife she was pulling out. He jerked it out of her hand. "You're not going to kill our baby!" He hissed.

"I could if you don't want it."

"I want our baby, Ryleigh. I want us to have a family together." Carl said.

"Okay." She said softly. "Then we're having a baby."

"I don't want you to go on anymore supply runs until after the baby is born."

"Carl I-" She started to protest, but he cut her off.

"No." He said firmly. "It's dangerous and I don't want you to risk your life or our baby's life."

"I understand." She said.

"We should tell everyone, that way they can begin to gather things you and the baby will need." 

"That's a good idea." Ryleigh agreed. "Let's get outta here."

"I'll get down first and make sure it's safe." Carl climbed down the tree. After making sure it was safe for Ryleigh, he told her to climb down. He helped her once she got close enough.

They went back to Alexandria holding hands.

"Everything okay?" Rick asked as they passed him and Michonne.

"Can we having a meeting at our place in half an hour?" Carl asked. "Family." He elaborated, meaning the core group.

"Sure, I'll pass it on." Rick agreed. "Everything okay?" He repeated.

"Ryleigh and I have something we wanna tell everyone," Carl explained.

"See you in half an hour then," Michonne replied.

Ryleigh and Carl went into the house and up to their room.

Ryleigh sat on the bed. "Can I have my knife back?" She asked him as he was changing his shirt.

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid?" He turned to her.

"Don't you trust me, Carl?"

"I do trust you." He gave the knife back to her and she put it away in its holster.

Half an hour later, Ryleigh and Carl were downstairs. The core group had all arrived and were waiting on Carl and Ryleigh's announcement.

"Should we go ahead and start?" Carl spoke up.

"Go on." Rick encouraged with a nod.

"I'm pregnant." Ryleigh came right out with it.

"Are you two planning on keeping it?" Rick asked

"Yes, we are," Carl answered confidently.

"You probably shouldn't go out on any more supply runs," Rick said looking towards Ryleigh.

"What'll my new job be?" Ryleigh asked.

She and Glenn usually went out on the supply run together.

"You could babysit the kids?" Rick offered.

"I do that in my free time anyway. Give me a real job, Rick. I could stand watch." She offered.

"No, you couldn't," Carl spoke up.

"I could and you know it, you just don't want me to." She said and looked at Rick again. "I could hunt with Daryl." She looked at the redneck.

"Not happening," Carl said.

"Carl and Rick are right," Daryl said. "You don't need to be doing nothing like that."

Ryleigh gave Carl a look that said: "is there anything you're going to let me do?".

"I'm trying to keep you and our baby safe," Carl said.

"They're right, Ryleigh. The safer you are, the more piece of mind we all have." Michonne pointed out.

"Okay, so give me a safe job. I'm not just going to sit around on my ass all day." Ryleigh said.

"Gardening," Rick said.

"Perfect!" Ryleigh clapped her hands together.

"I'm going to be a big brother!" Grayson spoke up.

He was Ryleigh's five-year-old brother whom Ryleigh had been raising since nearly the beginning of the apocalypse. Their parents were bitten early on so Ryleigh was left to care for him. He always considered Ryleigh his mom and even his first word was calling her "mama".

Ryleigh smiled at him. "Yeah, you are, bud."

He clapped his hands together excitedly. She ruffled his curly hair.


End file.
